MAKING BREAD. 151 



always has. As soon as the dough begins to sink, 

 it is made up into the proper form, and put into the 

 oven, where the heat converting the water into an 

 elastic vapour, the loaf rises still more. The fer- 

 mentation by means of leaven is thought to be of 

 the acetous kind, because it is generally so managed 

 that the bread has a sour taste. 



Bread made with Yeast. 



Yeast is the froth formed upon the surface of 

 beer, or ale, in a state of fermentation, and is com- 

 posed of carbonic acid gas inclosed in bubbles of 

 the mucilaginous liquor. When this is mixed with 

 dough, it causes it to ferment, and rise better and 

 more quickly than ordinary leaven ; and by this 

 means the best bread, and that now most generally 

 in use, is made. 



Bread made with yeast is not only less compact, 

 lighter, and of a much more agreeable taste than 

 the preceding kinds ; but it is also more miscible 

 in water, with which it does not form a viscous 

 mass, a circumstance of the greatest importance 

 in digestion. 



Bread, if well baked, is materially different from 

 flour and farinaceous cakes ; it no longer forms a 

 tenacious dough with water, nor can starch or 

 gluten be any more separated from it : and hence 

 most probably its good qualities result. 



The method of making common family bread is 

 as follows : to half a bushel of flour add six ounces 

 of salt, a pint of yeast, and six quarts of water that 

 has boiled ; in warm weather pour the water in 

 nearly cold, but it winter let it be lukewarm. Put 

 all these into a kneading-trough, and work them 

 together till they are the proper consistence of 

 dough. Cover up the dough warm that it may 



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